YOUR HAY TEST RESULTS

YOUR HAY TEST RESULTS You sent in a hay sample for analysis…great! This is an important first step to help you make the best choices for your horse’s feeding program. Now you have this report with lots of numbers…what does it mean? In this article we’ll look at a report and decipher the results. Here is a copy of a typical forage analysis, done by the Elk River Forage Lab in Elk River, MN. If you use a different lab, your results will probably have the same categories but may have a different appearance. This report is for a first cut, mixed grass hay produced in southern Maine in June. The hay sample was pulled and tested in September. Hay was taken from several bales from the same field. Starting on the left, we see a column labeled “Method”. This tells you how the final numbers were achieved. N means a form of spectroscopy was used to determine the nutrients and characteristics. Wet chemistry (W) refers to testing the sample in liquid phase (think back to high school chemistry lab) and C means that the result is based on a calculation. Next, we see a column that tells us what the test was for, followed by the unit of measure. The middle of the page shows two columns labeled LOW and HIGH, and they show the range that is typical for hay produced in your region. The last two columns show the results for your hay on a dry matter (DM) basis and as the hay actually is. Dry matter results show what is left after the moisture is removed. It is especially useful when you are comparing several results because it reduces all the hay samples to a common level. If you are comparing two or more results, make sure that you are looking at the DM results for each and are not comparing an “As Is” sample with a DM sample. It’s important to note here that the report tells you what your hay has. It does not tell you what your horse needs. In this article, we’re going to focus on the last two columns. Although it is helpful at times to look at the middle columns and see where your hay falls within that range, ultimately a hay analysis is about what you are feeding to your horse. Let’s take a quick tour through the rows now. MOISTURE is straightforward; it is the amount of moisture in your sample. You might think that drier is better, but hay that is too dry (under 10%) tends to be brittle and can easily shatter and become dusty. Horses may not like it. Hay that has too much moisture (over 18%) will likely develop mold over time. If this happens, this hay should not be fed to your horses. You could find yourself throwing out a lot of expensive product! How quickly mold develops depends on several factors such as heat, ventilation, where you store it, and how densely the hay is packed. DRY MATTER is simply the flip side of the moisture results. CRUDE PROTEIN measures the protein concentration of your hay and varies depending on the type of grass and when it was cut. Grass hays tend to have lower protein levels, while legume hays, such as alfalfa, are higher. Hay that is cut sooner in the season rather than later tends to have a higher protein content. Unfortunately, thanks to Mother Nature, this is not something that humans can control! Most horses’ protein requirements can be met with hay that measures 10%, but if you are trying to improve your horse’s topline and build muscle, you may wish to add more protein to his diet. However, protein can be HEAT DAMAGED through microbial activity, so the actual available protein is the number you would look at in this sample. This sample obviously is low in protein! Protein is made up of amino acids, and one of these is LYSINE. This is an essential amino acid, meaning that the horse cannot make it himself, so it must be supplied in his diet. While there is still much research being done on horses’ diets, it appears that lysine is the leader of the limiting essential amino acids. This means that for the protein chains to form and do their job, a certain amount of lysine must be present. If there isn’t enough present, then the other essential amino acids can’t do their jobs. Think of it in terms of your bridle: it doesn’t matter what kind- or how many- nosebands or reins you have if you are missing a cheekpiece. FAT is not found in abundance in forage. Forage is mostly carbohydrates. If you need to put weight on your horse and the fat content of your hay is low, he will need a more calories in a concentrated form, such as grain or a fat supplement. MINERALS: Ash seems like a strange thing to have in a forage report. It is a measure of minerals, such as calcium and phosphorus, and it also includes the dirt that ends up in your hay. Dirt can attach to hay in many ways. Perhaps it gets splashed onto the grass stalks during a heavy rain, or it can get stirred up during a drought when the hay is cut and tedded. This number tells you the overall percentage of minerals and dirt in your hay. It may not seem like a big deal, but in this example, for every 100 pounds that a horse eats, roughly four pounds are dirt and minerals. The minerals in this report (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium sodium, chloride, sulfur, copper, and zinc) make up only a tiny portion of a horse’s diet but are critical for everyday life. Minerals are important for bone structure, teeth, helping to move oxygen through the body, maintaining the proper blood chemistry, aiding in digestion, and so much more than we can possibly cover here. The amounts and the